


Far away the sea sounds and resounds

by chailover



Series: You can light up the dark [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Hatake Kakashi, Canonical Character Death, Caretaking, Diplomacy, F/M, Families of Choice, Family, Father-Son Relationship, Fatherhood, Gen, Namikaze Minato Lives, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27579623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chailover/pseuds/chailover
Summary: Namikaze Minato had cobbled his patchwork family together from blood, tears and laughter. Naruto might be all he had left of Kushina, but he was not going to let her be forgotten.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Namikaze Minato, Hatake Kakashi & Namikaze Minato & Nohara Rin & Uchiha Obito, Namikaze Minato & Uchiha Mikoto, Namikaze Minato & Uzumaki Naruto, Namikaze Minato/Uzumaki Kushina, Uchiha Mikoto & Uzumaki Kushina
Series: You can light up the dark [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1040802
Comments: 3
Kudos: 48





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title from a line in 'Here I love you' by Pablo Neruda.

***

Naruto’s patchy tufts of baby-soft hair was blond as the sun, and when he opened his eyes between bouts of sleeping or crying, they were sky-blue, the same color Minato saw in the mirror. He had read in the books and been warned by Lady Biwako that it might all change - and Minato honestly would not have minded at all if the blond darkened to red, or his eyes shaded to violet. 

But for now, Naruto was his splitting image, except maybe for the shape of his eyes and his still developing personality - fully Kushina’s in every way, loud and always wanting to be the center of attention. His chakra too, overflowing even with the Nine-Tails’ power sealed, was an unmistakable sign of Kushina’s bloodline.

“Sir?” The nurse said, not unkindly as his pen hovered over the form on the clipboard, the one that she was waiting for. Naruto had been fed and was finally sleeping, and even though there were a million things that needed his attention, Minato found himself stuck on this one.

They had decided to name him ‘Naruto’ months before his birth. They had agreed on it, asked Jiraiya-sensei and received permission. What they didn’t talk about was the subtle dimming of Kushina’s demeanor when talking about Uzushio, the nostalgia mingled with pain whenever they were in sight or sound of the ocean. Konoha was Kushina’s second home, but she had never forgotten her first.

Too many people in Konoha had put Uzushio out of their minds, ashamed of their powerlessness. Minato was also the last of his clan, the only holder of the name Namikaze, but it meant nothing to him - not a history or a culture, not even memory of his parents. And maybe it was the grief talking or wishful thinking, but he thought Kushina would have approved of this.

Minato nodded decisively to himself and laid pen down to paper, “Uzumaki,” he murmured, smiling at his sleeping son. “Uzumaki Naruto.”

***

The first month was hell, and this was coming from someone who had fought in a war and multiple skirmishes that were no less bloody and awful for not being widespread enough to be officially a war.

No, no, he didn’t _really_ think that. War was worse by several orders of magnitude. At least right now he was the only one suffering.

Kakashi had arrived late one day in his office, his one visible eye a little reddened so Minato assumed he just came back from the Memorial stone. Kushina’s name had recently been carved and Minato suspected that he had been spending all his time there, trying to make peace with his ghosts once again. But now Kakashi was here, and seemed to finally focus for the first time since that night. “Sensei,” he said with a frown, “have you been sleeping? Your eyebags have eyebags.”

On one hand, Minato was extremely relieved that Kakashi wasn’t wandering through life like he was a mere spectre - every time life cut Kakashi down, first with Sakumo, then Obito’s sacrifice, and Rin’s, Minato was terrified that the boy wouldn’t be able to pick himself up from the crippling blows. For all that Kakashi purported to be the perfect shinobi that didn’t let emotions get the better of him, Minato knew he felt, and felt deeply. If Minato didn’t have Naruto, he wasn’t sure he’d be any better off at handling Kushina’s death.

On the other hand, once Kakashi had a purpose and that laser focus turned on a specific target, he was _terrifying_.

“...er, yes?” Minato replied, blinking slowly as he fought the urge of his eyelids to close. Sleep sounded glorious right now. “I took a few winks when I put Naruto down for his nap.”

“When was that?” Kakashi was picking up a few sheaves of reports out of his outbox. Somehow he managed to convey a deeper frown with nothing more than his single visible eye. How a teenager managed to have more gravitas than some of the Clan heads at the council meetings was truly a mystery. Minato wasn’t sure whether to credit or blame Sakumo, sage rest his soul.

“Uuuuummmmmmmm…I don’t remember,” Minato whined a little, “Don’t ask me hard questions right now.”

Kakashi stared at him in a manner that told Minato that he was absolutely judging him, and wasn’t he ashamed of being a terrible example for impressionable young jounin? Minato remembered when that look was first turned on him back when Kakashi was a pre-teen. The boy’s gotten better at it. “You’re going home for the night.” He announced, walking over to where Minato had set up a crib and a temporary/slapdash baby station behind his desk. He carefully picked up the sleeping Naruto, who only cooed a little before subsiding.

“I am?” Minato repeated. Wasn’t there something about the Hokage being the most powerful person in the village? That sounded like an order.

“You are.” Kakashi said in his adults-can-be-so-dumb tone. “Your answers on those forms don’t even make sense anymore. What does ‘send more chopsticks’ have anything to do with the intelligence from Kumo?”

“....er…”

“Go home. Get sleep. I’ll come with you and watch Naruto tonight.” As Minato opened his mouth to protest, Kakashi neatly cut him off with, “And, tomorrow, you’ll set up someone to be your aide and get a rotation going for babysitting.” 

“Kakashi…” was all Minato managed - he knew that Kakashi wasn’t saying anything that wasn’t reasonable, and it was all things he should have thought of himself, but the exhaustion and overwhelmed feeling he had been dealing with made the mere offer of help close his throat, made his heart felt at once full and hurting.

Kakashi jerked his face away from having to look at Minato having _emotions_. His voice was gruff but soft as to not wake the baby in his arms, “Kushina-nee-san would kill me if you died from exhaustion,” he muttered, “And that’d leave Naruto with no one to take care of him. ...Kushina-nee-san, Obito and...and Rin, they would be better at this. But we’re all he’s got.” 

**

The rumblings didn’t coalesce until months later, when the rebuilding was in full swing and the talk of redistricting came up. Minato didn’t have to guess at Mikoto’s reaction when the proposal for the next council meeting crossed his desk - now slightly less of a fire hazard from all the paperwork with all of Shikaku’s (lazy) genius bent toward it - and he rubbed at his face with a palm as he groaned inwardly. This had Danzo’s fingerprints all over it, and the last thing he needed was to offend one of the most powerful - and one of the founding - clans of Konoha with this nonsense.

But Danzo was very good at what he did, and nothing in the text of it could be dismissed as frivolity. They had no evidence one way or another that the Uchiha were not involved in the Nine-Tail’s attack, and Danzo was using that to sow suspicion and discord. It could not be dismissed without a discussion, and Danzo was likely counting on the unbendable Uchiha pride to win him both the votes and the moral victory.

Kushina would have recommended that he resolve this with a kunai to Danzo’s face. Minato agreed mentally that was one method, albeit one that would cause more problems than it solved. He hoped Mikoto had a better plan.

**

Minato walked out of that council meeting in a slight daze. Danzo’s redistricting proposal - built with all the pretty and politically correct words, for all that it was a thinly veiled accusation of Uchiha betrayal - was soundly defeated. The various Clan heads’ sympathies were firmly in the Uchiha’s court now, with the Yamanakas confirming a mind-walk by their clan head and what happened during Uchiha Fugaku’s death. That an Uchiha was behind the attack of the Nine-Tails was the truth - also truth, that the rogue Uchiha was working alone and wanted the clan to join him. An invitation that was turned down as seen in Mikoto’s memories, and a refusal that was paid for with Fugaku’s life.

Mikoto was pale but dry-eyed when they met afterward, still in her widow’s mourning blacks. Danzo lost a lot of his political capital on his gamble, believing Mikoto to be either too weak to fight against him or too proud to entertain his conspiracy theory, which would have only fanned the flames. That she acquiesced to the mind walk at great personal cost to herself - both the Uchiha pride and also the pain of living the loss of her husband again, struck his play dead in the water and also made him seem like a bully. That he lost his composure a little and actually verbally doubted Yamanaka Inoichi was a bonus because if they weren’t swayed before, that definitely put the Yamanaka clan against him. And where the Yamanaka went, so did Akimichi and Nara. 

The Hyuuga might be against the Uchiha just in principle, but their leader’s not foolish enough to miss the parallel - if one Clan with a powerful doujutsu related bloodline could be blamed baselessly for something, it wouldn’t be a stretch that they could be next.

“I didn’t do this for you,” Mikoto told him, more blunt than he was used to. Kushina had always described her best friend as a blade - held in a beautiful sheathe most of the time, but no less deadly for it. “I did it for myself, for my clan. But you will have to seize the opening - the others have their eyes open now to Danzo’s machinations, but he’s been doing this longer than most of us have been alive.” She took a sip of her tea. “His idea of what Konoha should be...he thinks the ends justify the means, and that’s dangerous.”

“And completely against what Konoha was built for.” Minato sighed in agreement. “Thank you, Mikoto, for your sacrifice.”

Her eyes were pitch black, but he would not be surprised if they turned the blood-red of the Sharingan. She only nodded and said shortly, “See that you don’t waste it.”

***


	2. Chapter 2

**

Between judicious use of Shadow clones, Nara Shikaku’s lazy genius and Hatake Kakashi’s freaky genius, Minato carved out time to be both Konoha’s Hokage and Naruto’s father. It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but he did his very best. It only took one instance of Kakashi’s exasperated scolding when Naruto refused to go to sleep without his dad’s nightly ‘cool Kushina story’ before Minato made himself unavailable to work for Naruto’s bedtime rituals unless it was the direst of emergencies.

Come to think of it, Minato wasn’t sure if Kakashi was scolding him, or Naruto...or most likely, both of them.

For a little while, life...settled, for the lack of a better word. The empty space next to him left by Kushina still ached every day, but Minato didn’t dwell on the void - Naruto was the sun for him, warm and vivacious and the best parts of himself and Kushina. It seemed to pass by all in a flash, faster than even his teleportation technique. Naruto went from a tiny bundle, to pushing himself up by his arms, to loudly shrieking with joy whenever Kakashi gave in and summoned his nin-dogs for him to play with. He crawled everywhere and eventually one day, took unsteady steps toward Minato after Kakashi let go of his hands.

Minato wasn’t ashamed to admit that he choked up a little when his blond towheaded boy snuggled up to him and demanded stories about his ‘awesome mom’ or declared that ramen was the _best_ food ever. 

Not even all the trials and tribulations of being Hokage could bring him down, for all that he probably just jinxed himself with that thought. Sometimes he wondered what he would be remembered for, given the titans that held the title before him. Senju Hashirama ended an era of constant war and established the village system. His brother, Tobirama, established Konoha’s institutions and finished building it from the ground up. His master’s master, Sarutobi Hiruzen, held the village to stand strong amidst another war. Minato didn’t really feel like he was the strongest or smartest of the shinobi of the Leaf, but maybe the Third had seen something of his true hopes when he handed the hat over - his personal legacy as the Yellow Flash had already been stained with too much blood from the war. Minato could only hope that maybe he’ll be remembered for the same simple thing that motivated the great Senju Hashirama. A legacy of peace, for the children.

**

Minato would like to think of himself as a reasonable man - one ruled by the dictates of logic rather than the fires of passion. Passion was always Kushina’s domain. She felt deeply and righteously - burned at injustice and railed at unfairness, at the wrongs of the world. What she believed in, she threw her whole being behind, and there was no middle ground with his love, no uneasy compromise where her morals were concerned.

He hoped he had qualities from the best of both worlds, where he was guided by logic but still with the solid bedrock of morality and a thorough understanding of right and wrong, and being able to stand on the side that he can live with. 

It seemed that life/fate/circumstances were determined to mock him and his resolution.

Shikaku looked stony-faced but Minato could read the hidden meanings behind the glimmer in his onyx eyes, at the barely there flicker of his shadow, too dark to be wholly natural. The signs were there, if he had the calm left to read them.

Minato was rather proud of how calm he sounded, given how far from calm he really felt.

“Let me make sure I understood you correctly,” he said, in hopefully a tone that obviously warned his conversational partner to start backpedaling, and _fast_. “The head shinobi of Cloud attempted to kidnap a three-year old girl from her home here in Konoha, for her bloodline limit. The attempt was fortunately thwarted by the diligence of the village’s security forces and her own family guards, and the kidnapper lost his life when he tried to flee.” He took a deep breath. “And you believe, as the ambassador sent by the Raikage and the fact that the perpetrator was Cloud-nin, that these circumstances give you the right to make these demands that you’ve listed, as ‘reparations’ for the violation of the treaty?”

The ambassador - G or J or something, Minato couldn't care less at this point - did not seem to take the hint. “The ‘kidnapping attempt’ you refer to is entirely fabricated,” he sniffed. “Your shinobi have no evidence of such an act. The Head-nin from our village and I were here on a peace mission, and he was unfairly detained and died in custody, and we demand an explanation for this tragedy.”

“And the testimonies of eyewitnesses that are not Konoha shinobi are not sufficient?”

“They are all shinobi in that clan,” the ambassador huffed. “This is just a sign of the special treatment you give to your own, as opposed to completely innocent outsiders.”

Minato wondered vaguely how much trouble he’d be in with Shikaku if he wrung this sanctimonious asshole’s neck. But. Diplomacy.

“I see,” He said. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but it looks like at best you’re delusional, and at worst, a colluder.” The ambassador opened his mouth to argue and Minato held up a hand with a smile. Given that a held up hand is possibly a prelude to shaping signs, and that he loosened his leash on his killing intent just a bit, the other man choked back whatever he thought he was going to say.

“The fact is that we have civilian as well as shinobi witnesses that saw the attempted kidnapping of Hyuuga Hinata. We also have members of the Yamanaka clan that can do a mindwalk the offender’s remains to verify his identity and orders - “

“But he’s a corpse!” The ambassador exclaimed, horrified.

Minato kept smiling. “So?” The ambassador’s mouth opened and closed without a sound. Minato nodded to himself in satisfaction and steepled his fingers together.

“I’m afraid that in light of all the evidence we can still gather from the deceased, and the not insignificant possibility of the Raikage, and by extension, _your_ involvement, I can’t acquiesce to your demand for the Hyuuga clan to give up a pair of Byakugan as compensation.”

“This--!”

“In fact,” Minato cut him off again. “I believe we should place some additional security for you.” he flicked a hand sign and two ANBU materialized. “Please escort Ambassador G to his guest quarters. He should remain in there until the investigations are concluded, for his own safety.” Maybe it was petty, but it made him feel better to see the gradually dawning horror on the other man’s face, both at his failed attempt and most likely, what he would have to face if he ever made it back to the Raikage.

“You can’t do this…!” MInato smiled again, this time with teeth. 

“You’ll find that I can.” He informed the other man serenely. “After all, people get so up in arms when children are threatened.” Minato paused, and really looked the ambassador in the eye. “As you may know, this village was built on our founders’ dream that the children could grow up safe, even as shinobi...Everyone in the village is my family, and I have a son that’s the same age as Hinata. If something similar had happened to him…” he trailed off meaningfully. To be honest, he half expected Hyuuga Hiashi to take matters into his own hands with Ambassador G, like he already did with Kumo’s head shinobi...and to be even more honest, Minato wasn’t sure he’d be willing to step in and stop him.

The ANBU frog marched the ambassador out and Shikaku slowly released a long breath. “...shit.” he uttered, and Minato thought he was talking about the possibility that he had just blown any hope of peace with Kumo with his little temper tantrum. But Shikaku’s shadow stretched a little and then settled, going back into the nebulous gray of a normal shadow instead of a chakra-manipulated one. “Can you turn that down, please?”

Minato took a similarly long inhale, and carefully pulled back his chakra and killing intent back into its neat little box. Standing down, when every cell in his body wanted to fight.

“You are seriously pissed,” Shikaku noted when the air didn’t feel like a million knives pointing at every soft spot. “Sages, and people said Kushina was the terrifying one.”

That, more than anything, brought Minato close to centering himself again. This time, his smile was warmer. “Well, be Kushina’s voice of reason often enough, and you get a reputation for being cool-headed,” he admitted a bit ruefully. “And however mad I get, it never held a candle to Kushina’s level.” He shook his head. “Full disclosure, if this happened on Kushina’s watch...that ambassador would be a smear - no, a _crater_ , on the ground and we’d be most of the way to Kumo to demand A’s head.”

“And restart the war with Kumo.”

“Yes, and restart the war with Kumo.”

Shikaku gave him a shrewd glance. “And we aren’t, now?”

MInato made a disgusted noise. “If this was a plot by Kumo, it probably wasn’t by A. He’ll benefit if it succeeds, but have enough plausible deniability if he decides he wants to try and sweep this under the rug.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

Minato met his advisor’s eyes steadily. “I don’t want to keep fighting this war.” he said firmly, “but if other villages are going to stoop so low as to kidnap children for their bloodline limits, while here under the guise of a peace treaty, then I have no qualms about using whatever means I have at my disposal to stop it from happening again.” he hissed in a breath. “ _Hinata_ , Shikaku. She’s the same age as Shikamaru, the same as Naruto. Would you be nearly as calm if it was your son?

Shikaku pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m frankly surprised Hiashi hasn’t demanded the ambassador’s head.” he replied wearily. “Putting him in ANBU custody probably saved his life.” After a pause, he stuck his hands in his pockets. “This is so troublesome.”

Minato laughed at the familiar gripe. Shikaku cracked a smile too and jerked his chin toward the door. “What?” Minato asked, surprised.

“We’re done here. Go home and see your kids. Whatever happens next, we’ll deal with it.”

**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things...  
> 1\. The circumstances of Hinata's kidnapping is slightly different from canon (besides this AU premise of Minato being alive) - apparently when I went back to check, the head shinobi that was killed was also the ambassador. I had written it without knowing that so for this AU I made them different people.
> 
> 2\. Shikaku totally meant 'kids' as in Kakashi and Naruto.
> 
> 3\. Poor Minato will have a few more abuse-of-children related conniptions coming up.
> 
> I had written most of this by hand as a sort of catharsis for various life events. On one hand, I know real life is nowhere near that simple, and these types of actions can actually be abuse of power, etc. But on the other hand I think Minato really does have the moral right/high ground here, and yeah, real life sucks and people can be idiots, etc etc. But the whole point of this AU was mostly happier/better lives/endings, so... *shrug*. Your mileage may vary.
> 
> Stay safe and healthy, everyone.

**Author's Note:**

> I guess comments really do have the power to inspire? Also, I realized a lot of the political maneuvering and machinations would be clearer/more easily described from Minato's POV (given that he's the Hokage and all). I was going to write it all at once but I looked up today and the word count was already ridiculous (by my standards anyway), so I figured I'd give it a break for now. Probably going to be similar to You can Light up the Dark in its episodic/not ordered/random nature.


End file.
